What Type of SEO Consultant are&nbspYou?

The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

After putting in years as an in-house SEO, last month I took a leap to the agency-side of the business. In-house, I had the opportunity to solicit and retain SEO services from some of the search industry’s best and brightest. I’ve also been tasked to manage consulting gigs that were already in place. For every excellent experience I have had in seeking, retaining, or managing an SEO consultant relationship, I have had five others that were downright bizarre.

The first SEO consultant I hired was Dixon Jones back in 2002 for a small international e-commerce project. I later learned that this was his first SEO gig, but that's another story. In 2006 I worked with SEOmoz, which eventually landed me this job. Both of these experiences were fabulous.

Of all the consultants I’ve considered hiring or have worked with (voluntarily or otherwise), these are the ones that intrigue me most...

Closet Genius
Brilliant and eccentric, you are ‘internet famous’ and greatly respected in the search community. Your reputation is enveloped in an air of mystery. Nobody has met you in person… this includes the pizza guy and your largest paying client.

Livin’ Lazy
Your response to a recent big money consulting inquiry was, “Nah” [your disinterest emphasized by a shrug of the shoulders]. You have The Lazy SEO Manifesto printed and stuck to your bathroom mirror with gum (the scotch tape was in the other room).

Retired Rock Star
Your reputation is amazing. The passive revenue from your old side project still pays all the bills. People come from all over to hear you speak. You are still in SEO because the people are a lot of fun and you get heaps of respect in the space. You often entertain the idea of consulting, but don’t follow through.

Hung-Over
You attend conferences to drum up consulting business, well, at least that’s what you tell your spouse. More than once, you have lost out on a big opportunity because you were hung-over after a search party and missed the lunch meeting.

Throwing Darts in the Dark
Flipping burgers sucks! You decided last week that SEO is the career for you. Admittedly, you have a lot to learn. For now you will ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ with uninformed mom and pop sites.

Devs Gone WildYou have been a developer for your entire career. Back in ‘99, you put a block of white text on a white background and it worked really well. You recently learned that SEOs make pretty good coin and have decided to dust off your tried and true skills.

One Foot out the Door
You are getting ready to make the jump from full time employee to full time independent but are scared to death. You aren’t really ready to take on independent contracts but plan to be in one month. Okay, maybe two.

Own Worst Enemy
You have developed a set of detailed criteria to help you filter through consulting requests. At some point along the way you decided that you would only work with clients whose domain names start with the letter “G”. You can’t remember why. You haven’t worked in a while.

Tin-Foil Hat
You’ve done some pretty shady stuff. You’re sure the search quality team is on to you, so you wear a tin-foil hat to be safe. This didn’t go over so well at your last client meeting.

What type of SEO consultant are you?

About Lindsay —
Lindsay is the CEO at Keyphraseology, an SEO consultancy in sunny Florida. Prior to Keyphraseology, she led the SEOmoz SEO Consulting Team.

Okay, I printed this out and went over it trying to figure out where I fit in.

I do have a Tin Foil hat, but I onlt wear it to keep Google from reading my mind.

I might be my Own Worst Enemy, but I get along with myself pretty well so I think I would talk to myself if there was a problem.

I can't be the One Foot Out the Door guy, I already work for myself and if I acted like that I would be SO Fired!

The last thing I developed was a roll of 35mm Black and White. But nobody uses that stuff anymore.

Darts in the Dark is a lot like Pinatas in the dark, it seems like fun until the screaming starts.

I solved my drinking problem by imposing a very strict one beer limit so I don't get Hung Over as much and my wife can't buy groceries with stories so she only uses cash.

Not famous anywhere yet so I must not be a Rock Star. I can't stop working long enough to take a day off so I don't think Lazy fits...

So I must be In The Closet... well, it does explain a few of those pictures with Darren... so to be a better SEO I would have to come out of the closet. Oh wait, some people have met me... so I am officially Out of The Closet. That doesn't sound right either. If I'm in The Closet maybe everyone that has seen me is in there too. Must be a Walk In Closet.

Funny. But how about the SEO who is sick of taking clients and working for others so he/she starts building their own sites and now can't figure out if they are an SEO or an Affiliate first and foremost - but they don't care as long as they're making money...

Love your post. One category that's missing is the business owner SEO, or Self-SEO. I've met so many business owners, usually one man operations, running very successful online stores and I have to say those guys know more than an average SEO. When they contact me it's usually when they run out of depth, time or resources and need that extra nudge.

You own a small web development/design firm and hear a lot about SEO so you tack the buzz word onto your services and claim your websites are search engine friendly. People believe you because you've been in the business for a while and your sites look oh-so pretty.

I freely admit to being MANY of those types Lindsay :)... But don't tell the Critchlow brothers. ;)

Thanks for being so gracious about my efforts in the early days! Glad that the first experience wasn't a disaster. It wasn't my first though. The company formed in 1999 after I had enough clients to make it feel like a "goer". But yours was certainly the first across borders, so to speak.

Back then I don't know if anybody had a lot of experience bringing an ecommerce operation from North America to the UK & Europe in an search engine friendly way. Your solutions worked out fabulously, regardless of experience.

Funny stuff Lindsay. Good to see that the "One Foot Out The Door" type is common enough to make the list so I don't feel like it's just me who's constantly thinking, "I'll be ready to launch next month." (Which I've been doing for the last few months ;-)

Looking forward to seeing more of you on the blog now that you're settling in.

How about another category for the up and coming? That is the guy that is like a sleeper... you don't know he is there until the site he SEO's outranks yours and then you can't seem to top him. He knows alot but doesn't have a lot of visibility in the industry....

hmm.. well when "mom and pop" have 35 years of combined experience in software engineering, web development and are successful at placing their clients for their keywords in organic search, that's not exactly fake it till you make it. Lots of us out here don't toot our own horns; you don't have to be a "rockstar" when your biz is doing well by word of mouth, client to client and you never have to advertise yourself to make good. ;-)

nice post but couple of options r missing... i do not fall in any category for now :) for now i will use carralon commet "'One Foot out the Door' for me and looking forward to 'livin lazy' one day" : )

Secure Connection Failedwww.seomoz.org uses an invalid security certificate.The certificate expired on 2/20/09 12:19 PM.(Error code: sec_error_expired_certificate) * This could be a problem with the server's configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server. * If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later. Or you can add an exception…

Attractive post! The Livin' Lazy type is the most tempting, but I prefer to ride the trends-freak, first-mover advantage and occupy a new market for a mature brand or startup. SEO helps to gain brand performance control and it's beauty for all innovators, creators and wild rock stars around.Wish you a great start in SEOmoz!

I have one more type. It is based on never managing to show results, no matter how long he tries or what he says...but never admits it to himself. He uses LOTS of buzzwords to sound good. You name this type. Perhaps (S)leaze (E)ver (O)nward?

Hey, good point. I know of a company like that. They don't make promises but the also don't deliver even close to quality results. They over charge and then blame the failed results on the customer, the industry they are in, or other factors. I'd say their name but I'm sure they'd try to sue me.